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nine captured VC and a windfall of intelligence data along with captured weapons. 13@ Capt. Tolleson also ‘rescued’ a dog that seemed to take to him— We knew that the Vietnamese ‘ate’ dogs for the meat—we didn’t see many when we passed through the villages—he brought the dog back to the Company CP and named the dog ‘Bac-Tang’ after the Hamlet he came from. The night time , company sized raid had been successful and E Company had no casualties.
Chapter 14
The Big Snake
Our days through August and Sept. were spent running patrols, conducting sweeps and participating in Battalion operations. As most Marines will tell you we had a range of enemies other than the VC and The NVA. Those ‘other ‘ enemies were leeches—they we picked up while traveling in the flooded rice paddies and certain streams, dysentary from the water we drank, snakes , large mosquitos and rats. On one patrol our platoon was crossing a valley covered with ‘elephant grass’. The grass was eight-ten ft. tall and when standing on a ridge line looking down on it —-it appeared to be just regular grass. Once we were in it we realized we were invisible from the hills and —we couldn’t see a thing in front of us except the Marine’s back that was breaking the trail. I had a
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